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Red Baron
.]] The Red Baron (real name: Manfred Freiherr von Richthofen) serves as the main antagonist for Snoopy's battles as the World War I Flying Ace. Snoopy's imaginary battles against the Red Baron began in the comic strip in October 1965 and would continue in it for several decades. Snoopy's make-believe encounters with the Red Baron would also be seen on television and inspire a novelty record. He is also the antagonist of Snoopy's subplot in The Peanuts Movie. In the comic strip and TV specials Of all of Snoopy's guises, the World War I Flying Ace was perhaps his most notable. Using his doghouse as his "Sopwith Camel" fighter plane, he imagined endless battles with his nemesis. Though never depicted in human form (which went with creator Charles M. Schulz's credo of not picturing grown adults in the comic strip), the Red Baron would sometimes invariably get the best of Snoopy; as seen, for example, in the TV special It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, and his victories are often rewarded by the dog with a cry of anger and hate (i.e. "Curse you, Red Baron!") The initial sequences involving Snoopy's battles with the Red Baron have been credited as the pinnacle of Schulz's achievement in the comic strip, though this claim bristled Schulz himself. Eventually, he shifted the flying ace subject from battling wars to battling love and lonliness. As he confided to writer Rheta Grimsley Johnson in her 1988 book, Good Grief: "It reached a point where war just didn't seem funny." In The Peanuts Movie on the horizontal stabilizer]]In The Peanuts Movie the Red Baron is depicted for the first time in human form (in contrast to the comic strip and TV specials), but his face remains invisible throughout the movie. The Red Baron is flying a red Fokker Dr.I triplane in the movie. With Snoopy at his 6 o'clock position, the Red Baron performs a turn-around maneuver (hammerhead turn) at the top of the Eiffel Tower. An early trailer snapshot of this scene showed the Fokker with correct German national insignia (black crosses), which were later replaced for unknown reasons by fake national insignia (inclined black beams). "Buzz job": Pretty scary to Snoopy, the Red Baron performs with his Fokker a very low pass to the Flying Ace's victory root beer party, leaving root beer foam all over Snoopy's face (post-credits scene). The Red Baron also makes a cameo in the music video of "Better When I'm Dancin'". The song by The Royal Guardsmen Snoopy's imaginary battles with the Red Baron inspired the novelty record "Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron", written by Phil Gernhard and Dick Holler and recorded by the Florida-based group, The Royal Guardsmen in 1966. The song reached number 2 in the Billboard Hot 100 in December 1966 and number 6 in the British charts in February 1967. The song was recorded without asking permission to use the name "Snoopy" and without having an advertising license. For that reason, the songwriters were sued by Charles M. Schulz and United Features Syndicate. Schulz and the syndicate won the court case and, as a result, all publishing revenues from the song went to them. The song was subsequently retitled "Squeaky Vs. The Black Knight" for release in Canada. However, Schulz allowed The Royal Guardsmen to record further songs about Snoopy, including "The Return of the Red Baron", "Snoopy's Christmas", "Snoopy For President" and "The Smallest Astronaut". "Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron" was later re-recorded in Britain as a ska song by the group, The Hotshots. It reached number 4 on the British charts in 1973. The Heathrow Flyers recorded a country version of the song and Lovegutter recorded 1992 a punk version of the song. In video and online games ''Snoopy vs. the Red Baron'' is the name of a game for PS2. In Great Pumpkin Island on Poptropica, Woodstock pretends to be the Red Baron; notice the yellow bird in the plane. In Snoopy Flying Ace, The Red Baron makes a full physical appearance. In ''The Peanuts Movie: Snoopy's Grand Adventure'', the Red Baron acts as the boss of the fourth area, the Skies Above Paris. He is fought in a side-scrolling shooter stage, called Red Baron's Revenge. The Red Baron attacks by throwing bombs out of his plane. These bombs will home in on their target, but are slow and can be avoided. Another attack involves the mini-gun, which shoots a spray of bullets that Snoopy must maneuver his plane around the shots to avoid taking damage. At the end of the course, the Red Baron retreats, defeated, and Franklin Armstrong can be saved, which unlocks the Underground level where "Pig-Pen" resides. The real Red Baron Freiherr (Baron) of Lower Silesia, his eminence Manfred von Richthofen (May 2, 1892 – April 21, 1918) was a genuine historical figure, an ace fighter pilot for Germany during World War I. A recipient of the Pour le Merite, Richthofen is considered the ace-of-aces of the First World War. With a confirmed kill list of eighty he is considered the best combat pilot of the Great War. His nickname, The Red Baron, was bestowed upon him by the British Army due to his red colored plane, and his aristocratic lineage. He is now known by the name Der Rote Baron ("The Red Baron") even in Germany, although during his lifetime he was better known there as Der Rote Kampfflieger ("The Red Fighterpilot"). He was also known as The Red Knight in English and as Le diable rouge ''("The Red Devil") or ''Le petit rouge ("The Little Red One") in French. Shot fatally just days before his 26th birthday, Richthofen had only been shot down once before, in 1917, when he was stunned by a British bullet, which tore open his skull. The injury to his head affected his mental judgement, contributing to his death, by causing him to fly across enemy lines. His death was initially credited to the Canadian Royal Air Force pilot, Captain Arthur Roy Brown, but historians now believe that the fatal shot was fired from Australian troops on the ground. External links * Wikipedia article about Manfred von Richtofen, the real Red Baron. Category:Unseen characters Category:Snoopy Category:Antagonists Category:Characters introduced in 1965 Category:Red Baron Category:Adults